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Torry Coastal Battery, 03/2010

I went here with Alasdair yesterday and he was telling me all about this site but I never knew they executed pirates!
(See, Ninjas ARE better, they don't get caught and executed)

History

Inside the battery
Built to defend the city of Aberdeen and its harbour, the site dates back to at least the 1490s, with the blockhouse built at that time serving as the town's armoury, and a place of execution for pirates. A replacement was constructed on the beach during the 1780s, but suffered problems which quickly resulted in disputes over responsibility when it required maintenance. It was 1858 before agreement was reached between the city council and the Board of Ordnance regarding the provision of new batteries at Torry Point and on the beach, prompted by the persistent fear of invasion by by the French, led by Napoleon III.
Torry Point Battery was built between 1859 and 1861, and manned by volunteers of the 1st Aberdeenshire Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers), formed October 24, 1860. The battery was initially armed with nine heavy guns: six 68-pounders and three 10-inch shell guns. In 1861, two of the heaviest armaments then in production were delivered, two 200 pound Armstrong guns, which were described as being capable of dropping a ball from Torry to Newburgh, almost ten miles away.
In 1895, the battery was partly dismantled, with the guns and mountings being shipped to the ordnance stores at Leith, after which the battery was use for training volunteers.
From 1904 to 1906, the battery was rebuilt, and two new 6-inch MK VII guns on CP MK II mountings were installed.

The Battery

World War I
During World War I, the battery was permanently manned, when it was again used as a training facility, with the guns being left in place after the conflict ended. The battery was decommissioned by the War Office in 1935

World War II
As World War II began, anti-aircraft guns, searchlights, and concrete roofs were added to the battery to protect the guns from aerial attack by dive bombers, and from ground attack in the event of an enemy landing. Personnel at the battery worked closely with RAF squadrons based at Dyce, leading to the construction of a combined Army and Navy plotting room at the battery in 1943.
World War II was the only time the heavy guns mounted at the batter would open fire. On the night of June 3, 1941, two unidentified vessels were detected approaching Aberdeen harbour. At the time, only Admiralty ships were permitted to enter the harbour at night, and two shells were fired - the vessels were later determined to be friendly. Also in 1941, machine guns at the battery engaged a German aircraft which had dropped bombs off Kinnaird Head, and was later brought down in flames at St Cyrus, just north of Montrose. Kinnaird Head is home to the Lighthouse Museum, where visitors can still see bullet holes left in the glass of the Kinnaird Light, made during a German air raid during the war.

Rocket House

Coastguard rocket house

Rocket house
Across Greyhope Road, and a short way to the northwest, is a substantial shoreside shelter with a platform on the roof. This is unrelated to battery and has been identified as a rocket house, a Coastguard life-saving station from which lines would have been launched and carried by rocket to vessels in distress off the harbour.

Re: Torry Coastal Battery, 03/2010

Thanks, TS.
It;s maintained, they had to put up fencing at the car park to stop the travellers coming in and trashing the place. If you look inside the closed off parts in the small windows there's a lot of rubbish inside them.